The invention relates to an apparatus for the storing of signals, more particularly ultrasonic signals, having a signal store with signal inputs for the read in of the signals and signal outputs for the read out of the stored signals, preferably to a recording device. The term signals includes in the broadest sense any signals, such as physiological signals (ECG, etc.), x-ray signals and more particularly ultrasonic signals in the medical field or any similar signals in the general technical field.
A great many arrangements of this type are already known specifically from ultrasonic image technique, for example German Offenlegungsschrift No. 26 19 684, German Auslegeschrift No. 24 17 946, U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,250, and the paper entitled: "A real-time Ultrasonic Diagnostic System for Dynamic and Still Images: Wireless Echovision" by K. I. Ito et al from the JEE Journal, December 1977, pages 20 to 26, which arrangements operate with a signal store which is designed in the conventional manner as an orthogonal frame store. The significant characteristic of this orthogonal store is that the signals arriving are read into the store in series and then read out again orthogonally to the read-in direction. However, experience has shown that the serial read-in results in relatively long image forming times so that a conversion mode from the slow ultrasonic image to the more rapid video image is produced, but this is still not always fast enough and thus leads to image flicker. Moreover, the conventional type of orthogonal store also requires a relatively rigid addressing scheme during the relatively slow read-in. This type of store is thus insufficiently flexible with regard to the great variety of application required.